Jammers

RECIPE: Another recipe from Dorie’s Cookies, this is the perfect biscuit to impress the more conservative types, as they won’t be scared off by unusual flavours but will enjoy a traditional biscuit served up in a new way. The recipe wasn’t altered.

COMPONENTS: The base is prepared and rolled, and then stored in the fridge for up to three hours before cutting. It’s important to stick to the advice to roll the dough between two layers of parchment paper because the dough gets quite soft and sticky. It’s much easier to work with when cutting if it has been cooled for the three hours. Don’t worry about any snapped discs due to cold dough, as they will just melt down and bake together in the oven (as long as you’re using a muffin tin). I have found that the streusel topping is very smooth and goes into the fridge as one big lump, and then coarsely grating it after it has cooled gives you a better finish than trying to crumble it with your fingers. I just used store-bought jam, as I didn’t have time to make some.

ASSEMBLY: The disc of vanilla biscuit dough is placed in the bottom of the muffin tin. About half a teaspoon of jam is carefully placed in the centre of the disc, and then the grated streusel is sprinkled evenly around the jam. I’ve found there’s enough streusel for 24 Jammers, but this will leave you with a lot of spare vanilla biscuit dough, so you could either make 1.5 quantities of the streusel, or just make some plain vanilla biscuits (sprinkled with coarse sugar crystals before putting in the oven) with the leftover dough.

IMPRESSION: These have a lovely soft texture and just the right amount of sweetness. Even though the jam is only in the middle, you usually get some in each bite, and even if you don’t, the biscuit still tastes good!

Use a stand mixer to beat the butter, both sugars and the salt on medium speed for about three minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. The mixture should be smooth but not fluffy.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and, one by one, beat in the yolks, followed by the vanilla.

Turn off the mixer, add the flour all at once and mix on low until the flour is just combined into the dough. Turn the mix a couple of times with a spatula before turning the dough out onto the counter and dividing in half. Roll out each half of dough to 5mm thick between two sheets of baking paper. Slide the paper lined dough onto a baking tray (they can be stacked) and freeze for at least one hour or refrigerate for at least two hours.

Whisk the flour, both sugars, the cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the cubes of cold butter and toss all the ingredients together with your fingers until the butter is coated.

Mix with either a stand mixer or by hand until the ingredients form moist, clumpy crumbs. Squeeze the streusel and it will hold together. This process might take 10 minutes or more. Sprinkle over the vanilla and mix until blended.

Pack the streusel into a covered container and refrigerate for at least one hour (three hours would be better) before using.

Jammers
French vanilla sable dough
Streusel dough
About 160g thick jam, such as blueberry or raspberry

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius. Grease a regular muffin tin.

Working with one sheet of dough at a time, peel away both pieces of paper and put the dough back on one sheet of paper. Using a cutter the same size as the base of your muffin tin (about 5cm), cut the dough into rounds and drop them into the muffin tin. The dough will spread to fill the mould completely. Save the scraps – they can be gathered together, re-rolled, chilled and cut.

Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon jam onto the centre of each biscuit. Coarsely grate the streusel, then spoon or sprinkle it around the edges of each biscuit. You want to cover the surface of the dough on the base, but leave the jam bare.

Bake the biscuits for 20-22 minutes, rotating halfway through the bake, cooking until the edges of the biscuits are golden brown. Leave the biscuits in the tin for about 15 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.